FFM and Wizard's Reach Questions

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

hi folks,

I'm in a pbp with a magus who has Flexible Formulaic Magic, and I'm pondering the application of some new ranges, durations, and targets. As an aside I starting looking into the Wizard's Reach spell, as it appears to be a darn powerful, but narrow version of the FFM virtue.

I understand that Wizard's Reach must be 1 mag higher than the effect to be altered, it only adds +1 mag max. And also that a separate spell is needed for each Form (WR-Corpus, WR-Ignem).

How does that combine with FFM, meaning can the effects stack if the Magus has the Wizard's Reach at a high enough level? Or does the WR spell only affect the base level of the spell?

I am assuming that the FFM Virtue can be applied to any formulaic non-ritual known, and it could be applied to a spell which is also going to be extended via Wizard's Reach, as long as the WR is higher than the "extended" spell level.

e.g.

  • the magus knows Eyes of the Cat (MuCo/An5) (ArM p.131) which is R:Touch, D: Sun, T:Ind. ... So base effect starts as MuCo/An5
  • then applies FFM to that spell, to extend to R: Voice. ... This alters the effect to MuCo10/An for the purposes of affecting it with a WR spell.
  • then extends that spell using Wizard's Reach (assume known at MuVi20). ... The WR spell needs to be level 15 so that it can affect the altered level 10 effect.

How does Wizard's Reach "work" with spells which have a Requisite?

I'm guessing that the Req is ignored and it is the base spell form which the Wizard's Reach needs to be learnt for. i.e. The Eyes of the Cat might be MuCo/An5 but it only needs a "Wizard's Reach Corpus" spell, not a hybrid An/Co mixed version, as the book says there are only 10 versions of the spell.

If it is argued that WR cannot be applied with FFM, then does this prohibit extending the Target via FFM and then the Range via WR?

cheers,

IBT

2

Hm. Well, by the end result, it could be argued that FFM is an implicit form of Muto Vim magic, and thus can't be combined with any other MuVi effect. However, I think that's punishing someone for taking a virtue, and it isn't explicitly stated in the virtue description. So I wouldn't use that argument, personally.

I would go with "use the new casting level of the effect", as you describe.

Re: requisites - I would agree with your interpretation as well: you only use the base effect, rather than all the potential requisite versions. Thus, there are only 10 of them.

Although personally I'd just use a ReVi "Intangible Tunnel" effect in a lesser magical item or Talisman. (Because I'm all about the ReVi effects). It works with all forms of spells, you don't need to Concentrate to cast it separately (if it's in a magical device), and you only need to learn it once! So for Range and Duration, Intangible Tunnel and Maintain the Demanding Spell are probably better general choices. (Yes, there are sitautions in which the MuVi version is better. For general use, though - I'd go with ReVi.)